


When the Stranger took her

by CatelynStark956



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:29:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26088724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatelynStark956/pseuds/CatelynStark956
Summary: Ned denies what is happening to his wife until the very last moment. She can’t die. For what is he without his beloved Cat at his side?
Relationships: Catelyn Stark/Ned Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	When the Stranger took her

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes you just gotta torture yourself a bit. And then post it so that others can torture themselves. Enjoy
> 
> It was originally posted on Tumblr

He didn’t know how long it had been since Maester Luwin took him aside and told him. Could have been minutes, could have been hours. The only thing he knew was that it wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. She would get better. She would be okay.

”I’m cold, Ned.”

Cat’s voice was barely more than a whisper. And just the effort from saying those words made her almost out of breath. He stood up and walked over to the window, closed it firmly. She had asked him to open it just minutes earlier. The fever had a strong grip on her. Too strong. He turned and looked at her, and she slowly turned her head and looked back at him. Her eyes that had always glittered blue were dim. Like there was a veil over them. And she had always been pale, but her skin almost seemed snow white. Her appearance screamed ’sickly’, ’dying’.

”Is that better?”

”Mhm.”

He sat down on the edge of edge of the bed again and stroke her hair. She shivered slightly, but despite that her forehead was hot to the touch and she was sweating. The fever was burning through her body like fire. It put everything in her to the torch, spared nothing. But it would get better. It just had to become worse first, before it got better. As with all sicknesses. 

”How long?”

He let his fingers trace her cheek, looked deeply into her eyes. She seemed to have trouble focusing her gaze.

”Until what, my love?” he asked.

When he asked that she chuckled deep down in her throat. That made her cough and when it was over she was even more out of breath. She was quiet for a while, just breathed slowly. In and out. Her breaths were shallow though, even more so than before, Ned could hear it. She couldn’t manage more than that. And his heart sunk in his chest.

”Until the Stranger comes for me” she finally said.

And not a hint of fear was in her voice. She was just calm, accepting.

”You won’t die” he told her.

It felt like he spoke to himself more than to her. Luwin had prepared him, he had told Ned that it would be a miracle if Cat saw another day. But she wouldn’t be gone before the next day. Luwin was wrong, she would live. In a few days she would be sitting up on her own and laughing and talking without struggle. because she would get better, he wouldn’t allow anything else.

”I have told you not to lie to me.”

Her smile was one that could only be described as tired. And it left her face so quickly that Ned almost doubted that it was ever there. But still he clung to that smile. The image of her smiling. She would keep smiling. She would make it through. Cat was strong, the strongest person in the world. She would live through the fever.

”I am not lying.”

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

”My stubborn fool” she whispered then.

Had he not been leaning down over her he wouldn’t have heard it. Her voice just grew fainter, like a memory that slowly faded away. He wouldn’t let her become a memory. She would stay with him. 

”Tell the children...” she had to pause and catch her breath. ”That I love them.”

He took one of her hands into his. Her forehead had been hot but her fingers were as cold as the winter outside. Her hands were always cold, that meant nothing. She would be fine.

”You can do it yourself” he said.

He wanted to smile at her, but found that he couldn’t. It was as though his face had turned to stone. 

”I don’t want them... to see me like this... they should remember me... healthy.”

He didn’t want to see her like that. He didn’t want his last memory of Cat to be her slowly dying before his eyes. All those times he had thought of that he couldn’t lose her. That he wouldn’t be able to manage without her. She had always promised him that she would stay by his side until the end of time when he told her that. And now she thought that she was leaving. He couldn’t let her leave, she couldn’t leave. The gods, old and new, be damned, they couldn’t take Cat away from him. She had to get better.

”You can do it when you get better.”

Once she got better he would take the children to see her. Then she could tell them how much she loved them. And they could tell her about everything she had missed when she was in bed. Because she would get better.

”My stubborn fool” she said again.

Then it was quiet for a long while. Ned didn’t want her to speak more than she had to. She needed what little strength she had, wasting it on words was unnecessary. So he only held her hand and stroke her hair. Tried to make her better with sheer willpower. The day passed by in silence, the only thing that was heard in the room was her shallow breathing. When she spoke again the sun had disappeared behind the horizon and the room was dark except for the fire in the hearth.

”I’m going to sleep now” she said.

No.

”I would prefer that you stayed awake, Cat.”

He tried so hard to not let his fear reflect in his voice. He had to be strong for her. He had to keep her alive, she couldn’t die. She was still so young, it wasn’t time yet. He needed more years, he needed her to grow old with him. 

”Me too. But I’m tired.”

”You can fight it. You’re strong.”

A weak smile appeared on her pale lips.

”I love you, Ned.”

And in that moment Ned knew that she had already given up the fight. She was too tired to continue, she would let it take her. And he couldn’t blame her. She had been fighting it for days. It had started as a light cough and she had dismissed it as nothing. Then the fever got higher and higher. And at the time she had been in bed for almost a week with Maester Luwin frantically trying to find a cure. It was a mercy for her to be taken by the darkness. But it wasn’t for him. He couldn’t live without her. 

”I love you too.”

So much that he couldn’t put it into words. He knew that he should have told her that when he had the chance. He should have told her how much she meant to him, he should have told her everything about how he didn’t want to imagine a future without her because she was his everything. “I love you too” was not nearly enough. But he said nothing. Because he couldn’t get any words out, they were stuck in his throat. He couldn’t say anything, he just couldn’t. 

”Goodnight” she said.

He watched her eyes close slowly. And he sat there on her bed, holding her hand, clinging to whatever little hope she had left him with. She would live to see another day. She would wake and she would see the sunrise. “Goodnight” would not be her last word. But every now and then her breathing would go quiet and Ned held his breath with her until she drew in a short breath again. She only had to keep on breathing until morning. They would find something to make her better. They had to. She just had to fight it a little longer.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, but it was still dark outside when Luwin came into the room.

”She’s still breathing” Ned said immediately. ”There is still hope, she isn’t gone yet.”

Was he speaking to himself or Maester Luwin? He didn’t know. All he knew was thet he was desperate for Luwin to agree with him.

”She’s still breathing, but the chances of her waking at dawn are close to nothing, my lord. I’m so sorry.”

The grey little man seemed even smaller than usual. His face laid in sad wrinkles. Ned felt the same. He felt small and grey. And empty. Because what was he without his Cat? He didn’t want to know.

”Is there really nothing we can do?” Ned asked. 

”I have tried everything I know and more than that.”

Ned looked down at his wife again. Cat had always been so soft, but the fever had taken the softness from her, left her with sharp and thin features. Her fine high cheekbones had given her a very beautiful face, but because of her sickness they just cut through her face and made her look even more sick.

Cat stopped breathing again and Ned stopped with her. He held his breath until his lungs burned and he had to breathe again. But Cat didn’t breathe again. She didn’t draw a breath with him, she was quiet and still.

“Cat” Ned said and shook her shoulder lightly.

No response.

“She’s gone, my lord.”

Something in Ned died too.

During their lives the Stark children only saw their father cry once. When he kneeled in front of the heart tree in the godswood the night their mother died. He didn’t pray to the gods that night, he only cursed them. When they watched their mother’s funeral boat catch on fire as it floated down the White Knife their father didn’t cry, he only stared silently. Arya believes that his silent stare was worse than when he cried in front of the weirwood.

The chair next to the their father’s high seat was empty until his death. And the day of his passing both chairs were empty. Afterwards Robb can’t help but think that it was better when both were empty than when one chair gaped empty and the other was occupied by a man who had lost his heart.


End file.
